TALK & TOUR: RALPH RUCCI: THE ART OF WEIGHTLESSNESSApril 10, 6-7 pmThe Museum at FITValerie Steele, The Museum at FIT, leads this guided tour of Ralph Rucci, the last before the exhibition closes, on April 14. Rucci, an FIT alumnus, was recently honored by the museum’s Couture Council with their first Award for Artistry of Fashion. This event is free and open to the general public. For more information or to register, visit www.fitnyc.edu/museum, or contact 75958, museuminfo@fitnyc.edu.

TALKING TRADE @ FIT: “THE GREENING OF THE INTERNATIONAL TEXTILE AND APPAREL INDUSTRY”April 10, 6:30-8 pmDavid Dubinsky Center, eighth floor, alcoveThe latest in a guest lecture series presented by International Trade and Marketing for the Fashion Industries (ITM). Mark Messura, executive vice president of the global product supply chain division, Cotton Incorporated, will discuss the latest trends in environmental and ethical responsibility in the fashion business. For more information, contact Christine Pomeranz, ITM, 73323.

TALK & TOUR: LILLY DACHÉ: GLAMOUR AT THE DROP OF A HATApril 11 and 17, 6-7 pmThe Museum at FITThe Museum at FIT is offering two guided tours of Lilly Daché, the 2007 exhibition curated by graduate students in Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice. Vanessa Arlak, Fashion and Textile Studies ’07, will lead the April 11 tour; Erin Lindstrom, Fashion and Textile Studies ’07, will lead the April 17 tour. These events are free and open to the general public. For more information or to register, visit www.fitnyc.edu/museum, or contact 75958, museuminfo@fitnyc.edu.

HOLOCAUST COMMEMORATION EVENT: “SURVIVORS OF GENOCIDE”April 12, 1-2 pmKatie Murphy AmphitheatreThe College-wide Committee on Diversity presents its sixth annual Holocaust Commemoration Event, “Survivors of Genocide.” David Gewirtzman, survivor of the Nazi Holocaust, and Eugenie Mukeshimana, survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, will share their experiences of deprivation and perseverance. Together and separately, the two have spoken at the United Nations, the Kennedy Center, and interfaith group meetings and universities worldwide. Their work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC, CNN, NBC, and PBS. This event is free and open to the general public. For more information, contact Roberta Paley, Social Sciences, 78766.

RALPH RUCCI: THE ART OF WEIGHTLESSNESSThrough April 14The Museum at FITRalph Rucci celebrates the work of the acclaimed haute couture designer and FIT alumnus. This exhibition was made possible in part through the generosity of the Couture Council. For more information, visit www.fitnyc.edu/museum.

“SKIN + BONES: PARALLEL PRACTICES IN FASHION AND ARCHITECTURE”April 18, 6-8 pmKatie Murphy AmphitheatreA panel discussion organized by The Museum at FIT and the Bard Graduate Center, “SKIN + BONES” takes a look at how contemporary architects look to fashion and techniques of tailoring as they attempt to achieve increasingly complex forms. Participants include Brooke Hodge, curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; Patricia Mears, The Museum at FIT; and Susan Sidlauskas, associate professor of art history at Rutgers University. $25 for the general public, $17 for non-FIT students and senior citizens, and free to all FIT students, faculty, and staff. For more information, visit www.fitnyc.edu/museum. To register, contact the Bard Graduate Center, 212 501.3011, programs@bgc.bard.edu.

SUSTAINABILITY CONFERENCEApril 19, 9 am-6 pmJohn E. Reeves Great HallThe FIT Sustainability Group presents its first conference, “An Introduction to Sustainable Business and Design,” designed to involve and inspire the college community to create a more sustainable campus, home, and workplace. The daylong event will include an industry panel discussion, FIT faculty panel, sustainable fashion show, exhibition of sustainability-themed student work, and reception. All are encouraged to attend. For more information, visit www3.fitnyc.edu/sustainabilityatfit, or contact Georgia Kalivas, Textile Development and Marketing, 77143; or Artie Kopelman, Science and Mathematics, 77280.

LILLY DACHÉ: GLAMOUR AT THE DROP OF A HATThrough April 21The Museum at FITAn exhibition curated by graduate students in Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice, Lilly Daché examines the work of the celebrated Parisian milliner. For more information, visit www.fitnyc.edu/museum.

HOME PRODUCTS DEVELOPMENT BREAKFASTApril 23, 7-9 amCipriani 42nd Street, 110 East 42nd StreetHome Products Development hosts its 11th annual fundraising breakfast, supporting scholarships and student technology expenses and recognizing leaders in the field. This year’s honorees are Peter Cameron, CEO of Waterford Wedgewood; Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams of the Mitchell Gold Co.; and Marvin Hopkins, president and CEO of Hunter Douglas. The event will be emceed by Warren Shoulberg, publisher and editor-in-chief of HFN. For more information, contact Anne Appel, Home Products Development, 78487.

FACULTY MENTORINGApril 24, 5-6 pmCenter for Excellence in Teaching, Room B502All FIT faculty are encouraged to attend this final mentoring session for the spring 2007 semester. Topics to be discussed include academic integrity issues and the student evaluation process. Presenters include Leonard Bess, Fashion Design; Yuni Kawamura, Social Sciences; and Joseph Maiorca, Health and Physical Education. For more information, contact Joseph Maiorca, 77724.

ART MARKET: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES EXHIBITION: IMPOSSIBLY FAMILIARApril 26Art Gotham, 547 West 27th Street, fifth floorThe annual exhibition curated by graduate students in Art Market: Principles and Practices, Impossibly Familiar showcases the work of artists interested in teasing our ability to decipher experience. This exhibition will run through May 19; gallery hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 11 am-6 pm. An opening reception will be held April 26, 6-8 pm. For more information, visit www3.fitnyc.edu/impossiblyfamiliar, or contact Beth Miller Servetar, Art Market: Principles and Practices.

READING: “POETRY/ART/LUST/HELL”April 27, 1-2 pmRoom A506All are invited to attend this dramatic, bilingual (English/Italian) reading of the fifth canto of Dante’s Inferno, “The Circle of the Carnal Sinners,” performed by Foreign Languages faculty. The event will also feature illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy by Bri Hermanson, Graduate Illustration ’07 and SUNY Chancellor’s Award recipient. Hermanson will be on hand to discuss her work. For more information, contact James Cascaito, Foreign Languages, 78975; or Melanie Reim, Art and Design, 78072.

FASHION AND TEXTILE HISTORY GALLERY: SHE’S LIKE A RAINBOWThrough May 4The Museum at FITShe’s Like a Rainbow: Colors in Fashion, the latest rotation at the museum’s permanent Fashion and Textile History Gallery, explores the history, symbolism, science, and psychology of color in fashion. This exhibition was made possible in part through the generosity of ELLE magazine and Redken NYC; additional support was provided by the Couture Council. For more information, visit www.fitnyc.edu/museum.

PHOTOGRAPHY FACULTY MEMBER CONDUCTS SEMINARSDavid Wagner, Photography, will be conducting two upcoming seminars at Calumet Photography, 222 West 22nd Street. The first, on April 4, will cover the basics of digital photography and how to photograph typical consumer products and printed matter. The second, on April 11, will cover digital post-production techniques, including digitally rebuilding corners and edges, perspective correction, restoring shadow, and silhouetting. For more information, contact David Wagner.

ILLUSTRATION FACULTY MEMBER GIVES LECTUREMorton Kaish, Illustration, will present his lecture, “Nudes, Landscapes, and Interiors: A Personal Journey,” at the Art Students League on April 21. His lecture will be followed by a group discussion and critique of the attendees’ work. For more information, contact Morton Kaish, 212 595.6815.

ART AND DESIGN FACULTY MEMBER’S SOLO SHOWSara Petitt, Fabric Styling and Textile/Surface Design, will be exhibiting recent work in Two Degrees of Separation, a solo show running April 24-May 14 at the Pleiades Gallery, 530 West 25th Street. For more information, contact Sara Pettit.

ADMISSIONS EMPLOYEES PRESENT AT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCEAnthony DiPaola and Leah Modigliani, Admissions, have been invited to present papers at “Layering,” an International Association of Philosophy and Literature (IAPL) conference hosted by the University of Cyprus in Nicosia, Cyprus, June 4-9. DiPaola and Modigliani will participate on the “New Constructions of Disintegration: Art in the New Globalism” panel. For more information, visit www.iapl.info, or contact Anthony DiPaola, 73768.

FASHION AND TEXTILE STUDIES SPONSORS LECTUREOn March 26, Rebecca Jumper Matheson, research assistant at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and recent graduate of Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice, gave a lecture, “A House That Is Made of Hats: The Lilly Daché Building, 1937-1968,” at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, in Manhattan. Matheson’s lecture was cosponsored by the Fashion and Textile Studies Department, and offered in conjunction with the current Museum at FIT exhibition, Lilly Daché: Glamour at the Drop of a Hat, curated by students in the program.

FAMOUS PORTRAIT PAINTER VISITS FITOn March 13, the Graduate Illustration Department hosted an evening with Everett Raymond Kinstler, celebrated portrait artist. Kinstler has painted commissioned portraits of Tony Bennett, Katharine Hepburn, and John Wayne; his paintings of presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan are the official White House portraits. To a full audience, he talked about his fifty-year career, his beginnings as a comic book artist, and the years he spent as an illustrator. For more information, contact Melanie Reim, Art and Design, 78072.

ILLUSTRATION CLUB HOSTS ART CLINIC, MEETS YOGI BERRAOn February 19, Tony Capparelli, Illustration, and the Illustration Club hosted an art clinic for children ages 5-13 at the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center in Montclair, NJ. Capparelli and students Alexander Canon, Amelia Charles, Jeff Liu, and Shane McNamara taught a figure drawing lesson, featuring the New Jersey Devils’ mascot as the life model. Yogi Berra was on hand for the event, and posed for photos with the club. For more information, contact Tony Capparelli.

FASHION DESIGN STUDENTS ATTEND RUNWAY SHOW, CREATE DVDIn January, Sandra Markus, Fashion Design, accompanied four Fashion Design students specializing in children’s wear to Pitti Bimbo, a children’s wear runway show in Florence, Italy. Ashley Berger, Annie Nichols, Natalie Pyper, and Jamie Szramowski took a digital camera class beforehand, familiarizing themselves with techniques for runway photography. A DVD of their Pitti Bimbo shots, which both presents the show and forecasts future trends in children’s wear, was presented to graduating AAS and BFA Fashion Design students. For more information, contact Sandra Markus.

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY PROGRAMS NEWSEducational Opportunity Programs’ (EOP) Art and Design Prep Program—an intensive, ten-week course of study for underserved high school students with an interest in art and design—began its second session in mid-March. The program focuses on college guidance, fashion illustration, life drawing, and portfolio preparation. Three high school seniors participating in EOP’s High School Partnership Program were recently honored with the National Design Museum’s Lehman Scholarship Award. Estebanie Franco, Feride Ozoy, and Nina Pickney have each received an $1,800 stipend, and free access to the museum’s design workshops and lectures for the remainder of the spring semester.

FACULTY MEMBER’S WORK HIGHLIGHTED IN MAGAZINESThe display and office lighting work of Adam Hayes, Interior Design, was recognized in two recent issues of VM+SD and LA+A magazines, trade publications for the design, display, and lighting industries. For more information, contact Adam Hayes.

TEXTILE/SURFACE DESIGN FACULTY MEMBER’S SOLO SHOWNETSCAPES, a collection of recent works by Leora Klaymer Stewart, Textile/Surface Design, will be on view at the 2/20 Gallery, in Manhattan, in early 2008. For more information, contact Leora Klaymer Stewart.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

CURTIS DIXON NAMED DIRECTOR OF SECURITYHarvey Spector, Finance and Operations, has announced the appointment of Curtis Dixon to the position of director of Security. Dixon joined FIT in 2006 as deputy director of Security, and has served as acting director since the former director’s retirement last year. He has an extensive background in law enforcement, including 26 years with the New York City Police Department.

INTERNAL AUDITOR IS APPOINTEDPresident Joyce F. Brown has announced the appointment of David Rankert to the newly created position of internal auditor. As internal auditor, Rankert is responsible for designing and implementing an audit plan and internal control program to ensure compliance and consistency with the college’s many policies and procedures, laws, and external regulations. He will conduct financial and operational audits, act as liaison with governmental agencies, and provide audit expertise and assistance as the college continues its implementation of the strategic plan. Rankert previously served as acting director of internal audit at the City University of New York. To read President Brown’s memo on the appointment, visit InsideFIT here.

NEW INTERLIBRARY LOAN SERVICE AT GLADYS MARCUSILLiad, the interlibrary loan service, is now available to all FIT students, faculty, and staff. Books, photocopies of articles, or other materials not included in the Gladys Marcus Library’s collections may be requested through this online resource. For more information, visit the library's website here, or contact Paul Lajoie, Gladys Marcus Library, 75700.

NEW WEI WORKSHOPSThe New Working with Electronic Information (WEI) Group offers computing programs and skills to all FIT faculty and staff. Workshop dates and times are listed at www3.fitnyc.edu/thenewwei. For more information or to register, contact Patricia McGillin, Human Resources, 73662.